Category Archives: family history

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A funny memento: in Feb, 2004 I was doing a project that involved favorite quotations and got this email from my mom: “Well, you got your father’s pen going and he had to write out a few of his quotes.” … Continue reading →

Today Mad In Pursuit presents a story by Brendan McDermott, in this international debut among the family storytellers and mythmakers. He tells the tale of his mother’s strange and secret gymnastics… Read The Spoils of War here>>> McDermott is a … Continue reading →

My dad was only 5 when his grandma died but she made a big impression. She was the heart of his father’s family and the brains of their family carpentry business. But she was also a bit of a mystery … Continue reading →

The Irish (those great talkers — playwrights and politicians) have a preferred mode to punish someone they’re mad at: silence. In the late 80′s my Uncle Bill B. had a beef with my grandmother (who was already dead) and cut … Continue reading →

We found a short story that Jim wrote and illustrated when he was about 13 — 1945. The Story of Gink is about a housecat named Gink who runs off to join the Catnip Navy with his alley cat friend … Continue reading →

Some people are born old and work backward. Jim’s early -life lesson: you can fall off a roof without injury, you can fall out of a moving car without injury… but if you sit in a chair too long, you … Continue reading →

A clue as to how long and cold this January has been is our willingness to start bringing Jim’s professional papers home from his university office and to dig out the boxes of additional memorabilia from the closet I like … Continue reading →